Remember how certain portions of the internet were going into hysterics about how Final wasn't going to be localized because Atlus USA didn't announce it as soon as the game came out in Japan? Remember how literally the exact same thing happened with Catherine a few years ago?

Man. The Internet is silly.

Anyway. I like mainline SMT better than Persona overall, though I haven't played the PS1 games. On the other hand, SMT IV ended up pissing me off something fierce when it locked me out of Neutral path at the last possible minute after putting dozens of hours into a NG+ just for that reason. Left such a bitter aftertaste that I'm not even sure I'll bother with Final.

Bring on a 3DS remake of Nocturne, imo

"I am shocked, SHOCKED, that a regular on an Evangelion forum would be a self-hating mess." - Tarnsman, paraphrased

"Jesus Christ, why are we even still talking about this shit?" - The Eva Monkey, summing up Evageeks in a sentence

At long last, I've beaten Persona 4. (It happened weeks ago at this point, but better late than never.)

Thus ends a 3-year journey that began way, way back in late May of 2013. I thought last summer would be the last summer I'd play the game, but my conviction to keep playing it despite the change of seasons (because I'd been playing it only during the warm seasons) didn't hold.

The final stretch went a bit differently from what I'd been led to expect. Turns out the advice I was given was for the Golden version, so the months between December and the finale in March were not available for social link gameplay, but I made up for that with my trusty Code Breaker, which allowed me to finish the game with all social links maxed on the first time through.

It took me nearly 140 hours to beat the game (same as Persona 3), and that's just official playtime. If we included all the time spent resetting and exploring different dialogue choices and other experimental runs, I wouldn't be surprised if the real number of hours played were nearly twice that.

System Administrator, Thread Surgeon General, Default Complaint Receptacle"NGE is like a perfectly improvised jazz piece. It builds on a standard and then plays off it from there, and its developments may occasionally recall what it's done before as a way of keeping the whole concatenated." -- Eva Yojimbo"To me watching anime is not just for killing time or entertainment, it is a life style, and a healthy one too." -- symbv"That sounds like the kind of science that makes absolutely 0 sense when you stop and think about it... I LOVE IT." -- Rosenakahara

I’ll escape now from this world, from the world of Jean Valjean, Jean Valjean is nothing now! Another story must begin!Avatar: "There's a Starman, waiting in the sky. He'd like to come and meet me, but he thinks he'd blow my mind."Phew, I’m not tense anymore… now I’m just miserable.People say "be yourself" but that's bad advice, if we were all to "be ourselves" many of us would stop wearing clothes. -Chuckman

For some reason all the prior discussion isn't in here (so perhaps it's buried deep in Currently Playing?), but my choice ultimately was Rise. I faffed about here and there with worry that I'd made the wrong choice but in general my confidence in my decision increased, and by the end I was very happy with it.

IronEvangelion's advice there is the advice that ultimately misled me. Turns out he was playing the Vita version of the game ("Persona 4 Golden"), which is extremely different, so the game ended much sooner for me than I was expecting -- but that sooner ending (in terms of hours played, not in-universe time elapsed, for those wondering) also felt right for the story and was convenient for me. I've even heard some opinions that the extra content that lengthens the story of the Vita version feels kinda shoehorned in, so with that and some other things in mind I'm quite glad to have gotten the experience that I did, because the game felt really well-paced and focused.

System Administrator, Thread Surgeon General, Default Complaint Receptacle"NGE is like a perfectly improvised jazz piece. It builds on a standard and then plays off it from there, and its developments may occasionally recall what it's done before as a way of keeping the whole concatenated." -- Eva Yojimbo"To me watching anime is not just for killing time or entertainment, it is a life style, and a healthy one too." -- symbv"That sounds like the kind of science that makes absolutely 0 sense when you stop and think about it... I LOVE IT." -- Rosenakahara

Monk Ed wrote:IronEvangelion's advice there is the advice that ultimately misled me. Turns out he was playing the Vita version of the game ("Persona 4 Golden"), which is extremely different, so the game ended much sooner for me than I was expecting -- but that sooner ending (in terms of hours played, not in-universe time elapsed, for those wondering) also felt right for the story and was convenient for me. I've even heard some opinions that the extra content that lengthens the story of the Vita version feels kinda shoehorned in, so with that and some other things in mind I'm quite glad to have gotten the experience that I did, because the game felt really well-paced and focused.

Wow, sorry about that. I didn't know the two versions were that different. Are you sure you got the best ending? You did find out

MASSIVE SPOILER SPOILER: Show

Adachi

was the one who was really behind everything, right? If you pick the wrong suspect in Golden, the game fast-forwards to March like you described (bad ending).

Oh yes. I confirmed it with a guide and everything. The real question is, are you? Cuz there's actually one last revelation after that.

System Administrator, Thread Surgeon General, Default Complaint Receptacle"NGE is like a perfectly improvised jazz piece. It builds on a standard and then plays off it from there, and its developments may occasionally recall what it's done before as a way of keeping the whole concatenated." -- Eva Yojimbo"To me watching anime is not just for killing time or entertainment, it is a life style, and a healthy one too." -- symbv"That sounds like the kind of science that makes absolutely 0 sense when you stop and think about it... I LOVE IT." -- Rosenakahara

As anybody yet watched Persona 5’s tie in Anime?Pretty heartless, but that’s just how A1 shows seem to feel at this point. Although A1 did their best to make it look as lifeless as possible, the underlying scripts were interesting enough to hold my attention. Looking forward to the game now more, though. So I guess mission accomplished?4/10

I've ordered my Take Your ♥ Edition, which will also be released on 14th of February in Europe. Which makes me happy. I don't think I could've endured an even longer wait.

Monk Ed wrote:Oh yes. I confirmed it with a guide and everything. The real question is, are you? Cuz there's actually one last revelation after that.

Yeah, after I accidentally got the bad ending on my first try I spoiled myself with a game guide and have been following it to make sure I cross all my T's. Luckily I had a save right before the point of no return, so no restarting was involved.

I'm wondering what happened to Persona 6 and 7 myself, but these are really exciting, even if they are just domain names and not guarantees. P5 must have done really well for them to even consider all of this. The article also says there will be an announcement of a new Persona game this year. Judging by how long it takes them to put out new main-line titles, I'm expecting Persona 10 in 2077.

So we are getting all the persona spinoffs, Dancing All Night, Arena, Etc. With the P5 cast?

Works for me.

Speaking of which when I have the time I should get around to finally playing P4 Arena Ultimax.

I’ll escape now from this world, from the world of Jean Valjean, Jean Valjean is nothing now! Another story must begin!Avatar: "There's a Starman, waiting in the sky. He'd like to come and meet me, but he thinks he'd blow my mind."Phew, I’m not tense anymore… now I’m just miserable.People say "be yourself" but that's bad advice, if we were all to "be ourselves" many of us would stop wearing clothes. -Chuckman

Yeah that's what it looks like. I could go for some P5 Arena myself. Hopefully they get Madhouse to animate the opening movie for that one too, the one they did for P4 Arena was beautiful. Love their animation.

I'm also hoping one of those is an expanded edition of the main game, like P3 FES and P4 Golden were. Maybe even add the option of playing as a female protagonist? This was a great idea they had for P3P, and I was sad to see it hadn't returned in P5. Really if they're going to give us blank-slate protagonists, they should at least allow us to do some customization.